Is there a difference between applying to 'Digital' Mckinsey and Mckinsey?

Wondering if there is any advice out there for someone who is wanting to join Digital Mckinsey / Bain/ BCG as an Associate consultant?

On the Mckinsey website to apply as an Associate, it states applicants must still complete case interviews. Will they be the same type of case that one would expect as a generalist associate, or are they more likely to involve digital issues etc?

McKinsey Digital roles are not that much different from McKinsey Generalist. The major difference is a separate staffing. You will have a different staffing coordinator who has to approve all your projects. In general, it gives you more opportunities since you can be staffed both on IT and generalist projects.

Specifically, McKinsey digital is working on IT strategy, Agile transformations, etc. It also depends on the country where you apply - while in US you can expect a lot of Digital projects, in other countries most of your projects will be in various industries and functions

All of the above has the following implications on the interview process:

You should prepare similarly to the regular McKinsey interviews (i.e. cases and fit parts)

You should be ready to solve specific cases related to IT (e.g. agile transformation cases. The case process itself will be very similar to the regular Mck interview)

You should be ready to talk on IT topics (Hint: read as many articles on McK website about digital transformations)

1-3 of the partners on your interviews will be from McKinsey Digital. You can collect some information about interviewing with them in advance (background, cases, questions, etc)

Great to see a fellow Aussie on this thread - I used to work at BCG in Australia, spent 70% of my cases working with BCG DV and now work at Uber Strategy in SF.

I am not super famililar with McKinsey Digital but it sounds like it does it covers a broad range of tech topics. BCG DV's primary focus is in product development and building new businesses - typically the mandate is what is a "big idea" for a new business or product that a client should invest in. BCG DV usually does the customer research, innovation, product design / development, BCG will help with business strategy, investment case, operations set up.

The closest role at BCG DV to a generalist BCG consultant is Venture Architect, but historically they have come from BCG side or were ex-entrepreneurs. Other major roles are Product Manager, Strategic Designer.

For BCG the interview process between BCG and BCG DV is the same but interview structure is same if applying for consulting role within both (vs. for example UX/UI engineer or architect specialist). However, as you correctly assumed, cases have all a digital component since this is what you will be doing.

In case of BCG, BCG and BCG DV are part of same company but moving between the two is exceptional and not the most easy/straightforward process.

I'd agree with all of Vlad's comments on what to expect and how to prep. I'd add:

McKinsey Digital is a body inside McKinsey, with over 1,000 people belonging to the org worldwide. It is growing, and growing fast. Therefore, assuming the expected content of studies (projects in McK lingo) is appealing and exciting to you, I'd consider the growth factor.

This could prove helptful in a variety of ways: interesting opportunities to set up as demand from clients may outpace available consultants and even in pace of promotions further down the line.